Infamous does not necessarily mean you are "famous" for that bad deed...just that you have a reputation of the worst kind and that your actions are convicted of an offense that is disgracefull.
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I think Georgia's phrase "your actions are convicted of an offense" was a kind of accidental ellipsis for "[by] your actions [you] are convicted of an offense."
Where I disagree substantively with her is in her apparent claim that "infamy" does not imply fame of any sort. It certainly does, etymologically. Jack the Ripper is infamous because his press was deservedly bad and wide. Not to mention the D.C. snipers. On the other hand, while a local lawbreaker may achieve some level of "notoriety" in his community, that's a cut below infamy, and doesn't really deserve the name, though of course all the local journalists will continue to apply it until the lawbreaker and the journalists themselves fade into obscurity.
Posts: 2612 | Location: Upper U.S. | Registered: 06-11-02
